Showing posts with label fauna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fauna. Show all posts

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Manhole Birds




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Toyono Town in Kumamoto Prefecture uses an image of the ugusui, Japanese Bush-warbler.

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Up in Matsue, Shimane soem of the smaller draincovers around the castle moat feature the swan, hakucho in Japanese.

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Saijo City in Ehime on Shikoku features a pair of kingfishers, kawasemi in Japanese.

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Susaki in Kochi Prefecture on Shikoku also featurtes a kingfisher.

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Noichi, also in Kochi, no longer officially exists as it has been merged into a new municipality of Kamita. Among the daffodils flies a Hibari, skylark

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Tombi, Black-eared Kite


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The Black-eared Kite, Milvus Lineatus, is the most common raptor in Japan. In parts of japan it is called Tobi, but in my area it is called Tombi.

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They are quite common, especially along the coast and rivers. A few months ago I saw a flock of about 40 circling over my village. Apparently in winter they tend to roost together in larger groups.

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They are very opportunistic feeders, sometimes catching small animals but mostly feeding on carrion. They ahve been known to snatch food out of your hands. I was walking along near Hamada port one day eating a sandwich and they kept swooping to within inches of me.

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Monday, October 17, 2011

disturbed at breakfast

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Walking down Route 55 along the SE coast of Shikoku early one morning I disturbed a troop of monkeys in the trees along the roadside.

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I guess there was about 30 in total. I stood still for a minute and gradually they reappeared and carried on with their breakfast.

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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Creatures met along the way

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Here are some of the creatures I encountered on my walk last week down the SE coast of Shikoku.

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There arent a lot of goats in Japan, but you do occasionally see them staked out eating the weeds. I hope to get some goats in the future.

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This little bird could not have been dead long as it had not been taken by any carrion eater or invaded by ants....

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This frog however must have been dead for some time as it was completely mummified...

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Kites, tombi in Japanese, are common everywhere....

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Tombo, dragonflies, are also quite common... this one was quite a small species...

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Maybe because of the impending cooler weather, butterflies seem to be a lot more active right now...

Monday, September 5, 2011

They're back!!!

They're back!!!

Persimmon tree.

We hadn't seen hide nor hair of the monkeys for about three months, then last week I was sitting at my computer and heard a noise on the roof above me.

Our persimmon trees have started to become laden with persimmons.... still a ways from being ripe, but the monkeys quite like them that way.

When I went out the front door to sneak around the side of the house to try and get some good shots I heard a bang above me and a half-eaten pumpkin rolled off the roof and landed in front of me.

The thief climbed up the power pole and ran along the electric line, jumped on to my chicken shack and bounded off into the forest....

Sunday, July 24, 2011

Japanese Skink

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Skinks are skittish creatures as well as being fast movers, but this guy got trapped inside a plastic bucket so I was able to photograph him/her.

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The latin name is Plestiodon latiscutatus and apparently that is a fairly recent reclassification of the genus. In Japanese its called Nihon Tokage.

Juveniles and females have the distinctive metallic-blue tails...

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Thursday, March 17, 2011

Miyoshi

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This is the draincover for Miyoshi, a town in the mountains of Hiroshima, and upstream from us on the Gonokawa river. It depicts cormorants as ukai, the traditional method of river fishing using trained cormorants is still practised here in the summer.

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I don't have any photos of the ukai, but I hope to see it later this year. I do have a few photos of wild cormorants though, this one was along the moat of Okayama castle.

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In front of a house a few meters away from where I took the draincover photo I did find this rice-straw model of what I believe is a cormorant sitting on top of a turtle.

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Miyoshi is not particularly famous, but like a lot of places off the beaten track it is possible to spend a day or two there and find enough to see. Miyoshi dolls are still produced here, made of clay, and there is a nice free museum with a big display and its alos possible to visit workshops where they are made.


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Miyoshi also has a connection with the Chushingura, the story of the 47 Ronin. The wife of the Lord who was avenged by the ronin came from Miyoshi and after they committed ritual suicide she spent the rest of her life caring for the families of the 47. At her burial place in Miyoshi are statues of her and the 47 ronin as well as a cherry tree reputedly planted by the leader of the 47.

Previous posts on Miyoshi, mostly about the shrines, can be found here

Sunday, March 6, 2011

Big ol' spider

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There are a lot of these spiders around the end of summer and into autumn. I cant be sure but I think its is a female Nephila clavata, a kind of Golden silk orb weaver.

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The female will sometimes eat the male after copulating, so this may well be a Jorogumo, a mythical shape-shifting creature in Japanese folklore that takes on the appearance of a beautiful woman to attract men who are then tied up an eaten.

Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Giant Japanese Toad

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I nearly trod on this when I went out to check some seedlings a few weeks ago.
It made no attempt to flee so I went inside to get my camera....

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It was huge, half a kilo I would guess. I am almost certain it is a female Western Japanese Common Toad, Nihon Hiki Gaeru, Bufo Japonicus Japonicus.

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Yoko reckoned it was an Ushi Gaeru, a Cow Frog, but that is the name of the American Bullfrog that was introduced into Japan in the early Twentieth Century as a source of protein.

A photo of one of those can be seen here

Friday, December 17, 2010

Japanese Camels



Well of course there is no such thing as a Japanese Camel, and as far as I can find out there never has been.
These first two photos are of the Bactrician Camel, now native to Mongolia and part of China, though their prehistoric origin was probably North America.



These live in neighboring Tottori at the prefecture's most well-known tourist site, the Tottori Sand Dunes, where they give tourists short rides in the sand. Before I came to Japan, knowing how much I loved the desert my wife tried to convince me that Japan did in fact have a small desert. Tottori sand dunes is what she meant!



There was also a Dromedary or Arabian Camel. When i was a kid we used to ride camels at the zoo, and one time some years ago I did get up before dawn and ride a camel out into the Sahara to watch sunrise from the top of dunes similar to the ones here in Tottori.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

Monkey Watch

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I heard the calls of the monkeys in the forest outside my house so I watched out the window for a minute or two until I saw an adult jump down from the fence and head past my house.

I snuck outside with my camera and caught this guy gleaning my compost pile.

Probably a male.

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Sitting on the fence watching was another adult, female I think.

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It was not the whole troop, which numbers 20-30, but a family. There were 2 adults, 2 juveniles, and 2 babies.

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The mom stood guard while the kids scavenged around.

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Ive been fortunate to have lived places where encountering wild animals is the norm.

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I spent a good 30 minutes watching the family. One of these days Im going to set up a hide with my camera on a tripod and take some better shots.....

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Japanese Marten

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I found this little guy recently stretched out on the road. It wasnt squished and I couldnt see any injury, so maybe he died of a heart attack!

Its a Japanese marten, Ten in Japanese, (martus melampus).

The first time I saw one was back when we first moved to the village. Someone gave us a single hen to raise for eggs, and one night I heard a commotion so went outside with a flashlight to check and caught a marten exiting the coop with the dead hen clamped in its jaws.

It ran off into the forest and a few minutes later I heard 2 different animals screaming at each other, so some other forest critter that likes chicken was obviously trying to take it from the marten.

Monday, September 13, 2010

A Walk to Suga. Part 3

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This is the third and final part of a walk I took last May up in Izumo. The previous 2 posts can be found in the links below this post.

Walking along any road, in a city, in the country, or up in the mountains, you can't go far without passing a buddhist altar by the side of the road. Sometimes there is a single statue, usually Jizo, and sometimes several. Even in the most remote locations one can see signs of recent offerings.

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May is a wonderful time to go walking in the countryside. The paddies have been filled and the reflections make for wonderful mirrored scenes.

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This day there were a lot of snakes on the roads..... the filled paddies bring out the frogs, and the frogs bring out the snakes.

I passed several small shrines to Kojin, the land-god represented as a snake.

Also passed a nice shrine with many secondary shrines in the grounds. Unusually all the secondary shrines had signboards

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Finally I arrived in the village of Suga, and here was my destination, Suga Shrine.

It was here, according to legend, that Susano and Kushinada settled after the defeat of Yamata no Orochi. It was here also that Susano composed what is considered the first Tanka.....

Many clouds rise up
clouds appear to form a fence
holding this couple;
They form layers of a fence
Oh, the layers of that fence.


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Because of its out of the way location Suga Shrine does not receive so many visitors, but enough that a Miko is on duty most days.

Like many shrines there are a pair of giant cedar trees straddling the entrance.

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I carry on down the road towards Daito. I have a sleeping bag with me, but I see that there will be a bus in a few minutes that will take me back into Matsue in time to catch a train home, so I decide to leave Daito to another day.

I walked about 25k in 7 hours and visited 12 shrines......... another good day...